In general The Boneless Mercies was a fantastic story. A beautiful and poetic writing style, a captivating world and some truly unforgettable characters, only slightly dimmed by an at times illogically fervent agender, and so many randomly awesome women that sometimes the awesomeness began to run a bit thin.

Still, if you’re a fan of epic fantasy in the truest sense of the word and like the idea of a bit of good old fashioned beast bashing, then it’s definitely time to hunt some giant.

I listened to the audiobook for this. I do think this made me actually finish this.
If I had read this years ago I would have enjoyed it more.
While I did enjoy this I also spent the book waiting for something big to happen. Granted thongs did happen but I'm still left feeling like something was missing for my to truly love the book.
I don't think I'll remember this book or characters. Nothing stuck out enough for that to happen.

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

So this was unfortunately not a great read for me. I found the pacing slow and there's not a whole lot of action. Gore? Absolutely but the impact is lost because everything is kinda boring. I think a large part of it is to do with the characters, to me they had absolutely no depth and so I didn't care about them choosing to reform themselves or their long journey to do that.

This is the second book by this author that I've read and I don't think I'll be diving into any others any time soon.
I was disappointed by this, the premise had me so excited but personally the execution just missed.

I'm finding it hard to say anything positive to say about the book. I don't think it's inherently awful but for me it wasn't good either.

I gave this book a quick try, and ultimately decided to DNF -- my tastes have changed since I requested this. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book!

At first I found this book quite slow as it takes a while to build up the tension and introduce the world. However, once I got into it I was completely hooked by the characters, world-building and writing style. The story brought in elements of familiar stories, but twisted them just enough to make the book feel fresh and original.
I will definitely be looking out for more from this author!

This book felt really empowering, I am loving how many strong females there were in this book, it is the kind of book I wish I had 15 years ago. I really liked that there is a love story of sorts but it is not gone into too much and it does not depend the female character. I want to know what happens next in this world, I wish I didn't have to leave.

I was completely drawn in my the cover but this book blew away my expectations - bewitching and totally thrilling, dark, witchy and twisty.

Thank you Simon and Schuster UK Chidren's and Netgalley for the review copy. THE BONELESS MERCIES had a really intriguing and interesting story idea but I unfortunately found the book boring and the pace dragging. But I think this was just a case of "it's me, not you".

An incredibly engaging and vividly imaged world full of monsters and magic that I desperately did not want to come back from. From the Sea Witches to the Cut-Queen, to the Giantine Wolves and the ancient Jotun, it's hard not to crave yet more of this world and I live in hope that April will revisit this world once more in the future, if not for the Witch War to come, then at least to tell another heart-pounding saga.

This was such a page turner; a deeply whimsical, quiet kind of book with eerie undertones drawing upon the battles of Beowulf.

The Boneless Mercies are four hired assassins conducting mercy killings, each in their own fashion.

Whilst they initially grew together over a mutual feeling of being hopelessly lost, forming a dysfunctional family, each of them wants something more. Frey is looking for glory; a way to be remembered. When she hears of a beast slaying villagers and ravaging towns nearby (and of the reward for its death) she quickly realises that fame and fortune could be hers if she can successfully kill the monster.

There were lots of things I really liked about this book. Most notably I loved the atmosphere of the book. It has the really compelling otherwordly feel about it, almost like a playful and unusual fairytale, which resonates throughout the book in both the writing but also in the plot itself.

I also liked the relationships between the main characters, who have a tangible sense of loyalty throughout the book; each of them had a unique backstory to fill in the gaps between travelling scenes, so I really felt like I got to grips with the fantasy world. Having said that, I failed to feel like I bonded with any of the characters and couldn't tell you many specifics about their appearance or personality traits. The limited dialogue between some of the characters might account for this because it definitely stifled the opportunity to showcase personality types, but I think the problem is much larger than that.

Consider this as an example: a reasonably significant death in this book happened so swiftly and with such little description or reaction from other characters that I genuinely missed it and had to read back to see how it had happened, whilst a very minor death happened over a number of pages and the characters were mortified. It just didn't really make sense. How can we be expected to care about a character death, and be expected to believe the other characters are profoundly hurt by this loss, when we have barely even met them? How can a larger death be so poorly executed that I failed to even notice it happening?

Similarly, the beast within this story was underwhelming. She is described by those who want to kill her fairly often as a monstrous, horrifically heartless creature determined to destroy everything in her power, but when she is finally revealed her alleged monstrous appearance and terrifying persona was actually a bit of a wet fish - she felt neither horrifically frightening or wretched in reality. Equally we only see her for the last few chapters of the book so the battles or challenges between the mercies and the monster I expected to see were pretty much resolved in one chapter - a beast of such design surely deserves some intense, eerie and perhaps even frightening introduction or to pose a challenge to the opposition. The wolves she kept as pets were far more vicious than she was.

Despite this I did really enjoy reading The Boneless Mercies. It's an easy, fun and atmospheric book and had genuine potential to be a 5 star book. Perhaps the Seven Endless Forests (a planned companion novel) will be an improvement.

A book that I wasn't expecting. The Boneless Mercies is reminiscent of old sagas, the hero's journey, and this is something that is played with a lot over the course of the book. It follows a ragtag group of girls who put aside their pasts and currently place as Mercies - aka. death traders - and decide they want more for themselves.

Whilst the world is incredibly interesting and the book is full of impressive worldbuilding, that isn't the point of the story. The point is character growth and relationships, about these specific characters and this moment in their lives. April Genevieve Tucholke's writing is so poetic and eloquent and beautiful that you are wrapped into this world, into this story, and you grow attached before you even realize you have.

A gorgeous fantasy of the hero's journey, with a focus on the power of women above all else.

I loved the idea behind 'The Boneless Mercies', basing a YA novel on Beowulf/Norse saga and featuring a band of young female mercy killers as it's main characters. I enjoyed the writing, which is often quite soulful and poetic (as befits a saga of this kind).

However, somethings also niggle at me about this novel. For one, as others have said, why change words ever so slightly (like Vorse for Norse), rather than either sticking with original spellings or creating a wholly different set if you felt it necessarily for your world building?

Also, I think the idea that a YA book has to be very short and simplified perhaps sells short a potential readership at times - and as I felt here, also sacrifices wordage and detail that would have made for a better, fuller story.

Nevertheless, 'The Boneless Mercies' is still a rather enjoyable novel and will perhaps provide a foundation for further interests and deeper reading into Norse tales.

This wasn't has good has I hoped its be would be took me a long time to read end up stopping and starting it's again. I found its bit boring in places.
I received this book from net galley in exchange for a honest review.

The premise was good. I only managed to read 31%. This book really pissed me off. Hear me out. I don't mind authors taking inspiration from other cultures including my own. I don't own it and I don't have copyright to it. I like it went my culture/language/reference pops up in books. I'm usually like "yeah mate that's me!!". For example in Six of Crows, some drinks "brennvin" which in Norwegian is homebrewed spirits and in the book was a strong brown liquid (which it usually is in real life too). First time I heard that I burst out laughing! It was so funny and random. I like it when there is something that an author can take and make their own, within reason. A handful of references or something is a good amount. if the references are mixed with other cultural references from other countries it's even better.

The Boneless Mercies have elements of Norwegian language, place names, and people names. It is the only country/culture/language there are references too which makes it stick out more. The use of these names are either taken directly or changed with one syllable, eg Vorse in the book is Norse in real life, and Obin in the book is Odin in real life. The author didn't make these named her own. it was too obvious and there was too many of these and one every single page. There was constant reference to Viking culture with longboats, attacks on Elshland (similar to England), eating mushrooms before a fight to become "berserk" which they did. There is a constant use of Norwegian names for people and places eg Finnmark used for a place name, its actually a country name of the most northern county, Aarne used as a male name, its actually a male name and spelt Arne, same with Trigve -> Trygve, and Else,, Lars, Embla, etc. I can go on, but I won't. This flow of Norwegian form a non-Norwegian author without hardly any effort at making it their own just feels cheap to me. there was so much of it, it really pissed me off and I had to DNF it.

Story-wise I have no idea what was happening as my judge meant is clouded by the language use and I will not make any comments on it. It would be unfair for me to judge the quality of the story itself.

This was a cut-throat YA fantasy, Following a band of female killer as they try and change their fate and their lives for the better. This was a great action adventure with brilliant feminist undertones.
Although not particularly fast paced this book suited me brilliantly. Definitely recommend to older YA readers!

A great book, I was hooked when I read the summary, let alone started the first chapter!

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a strong female character, there are many in this book!

The story line was interesting but I believe the next book will be much much better for me as I prefer something that is a bit bigger picture. It was great to get to know the characters and a good basis for the rest of the series.

"I was a Mercy-girl with no family, no home, no fortune, and yet my blood sang a song of glory"

* * * *
4 / 5

I love stories about girls who want glory. Girls with knives and fear and sisterhood and battle cries on their lips who want the world to know their name. Frey wants to give up her life as a Mercy, a killer, and hunt glory instead. Feel the blood of monsters on her knives rather than the blood of men and women who want to die. And I loved her and her whole crew of wonderfully different, diverse ladies and their deranged quest.

"They called us the Mercies, or sometimes the Boneless Mercies. They said we were shadows, ghosts, and if you touched our skin, we dissolved into smoke"

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies. They have a job that very few envy and yet their services are taken up across the land. They kill those that are too sick, that want to die, and sometimes, just sometimes, those who deserve it. They are friends, bound in blood and duty and gore, and their relationships with each other and themselves are deep and complicated. There's also a guy tagging alone with them who lost his family, who roves with a clan of killing women because he has nowhere else to call home. He and Frey are lovers, but they are friends first, and it's a lovely sensitive relationship that is quite unlike the normal stock YA romances.

More than that though, Frey has glory singing in her blood. She wants her name to be known across the land, to be remembered after her death. When something happens, she leads the Mercies to take on the most dangerous beast they have ever heard of. Frey is sad and desperate and violent and I loved her. They pick up their weapons and leave their tragic job behind them to seek out danger, which is when the action really gets going about halfway through.

"I would try my hand at greatness, and see where it led. Glory. I wanted to touch it. Taste it. I wanted it so deeply I thought my heart would swell up, claw its way out of me"

This book will not be for everyone. It is slow and sad and a little bit creepy. I thought it was melodic and beautiful, but that opinion won't be shared by all. It was also very norse inspired, but was weird about it - it used "Vorse" instead of "Norse" and "Holhalla" instead of "Valhalla" and I didn't really get the point. Why barely change it so obviously?? It was weird. 

The Boneless Mercies was a wild and beautiful book. It has a few flaws, sure, but it was a wonderful standalone that stands out in a sea of cliche YA fantasy literature. 

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of The Boneless Mercies

The book was fine, but the story and the characters felt unfinished and somewhat rushed. Doesn't seem like much happened either and the slow pacing of the story although immersive, it was too slow for my taste and struggled to maintain my interest. I also had an issue with the characters as I did not feel they were fleshed out enough. What I really enjoyed was the writing style which was very good and I believe that I will be picking up other works from the author in the future.

I really enjoyed this book. Thank you to the author, A.G. Tucholke, netgalley and the publishers for granting me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the writing, the characters really drew me in and the world building (much like ours) was very well done that I believed in the plot and was carried along inside this world. I thought the battles and the tension could have been drawn out a lot more. I feel as though perhaps the author was under a word limit from the publisher? Maybe? ... and I feel as though if the second half was better expanded upon then overall this book would have been perfect. The end just felt very rushed. I loved it but it fell just short because of the speedy second half.

The cover is perfect